A Boy and A Bear
by Maya Tamika
Summary: The story of how Arthur Kirkland took in a boy from the wild and raised him with the help of a few friends, including a motherly polar bear. No pairings, minor FACE family dynamics, sucky summary.
1. Chapter 1

_Ten years ago, I didn't know a word of English. Or any other human language, for that matter. I didn't know that I would end up in the care of one Arthur Kirkland. I didn't know that I would become the adopted son of Francis Bonnefoy. I didn't know that I would have a friend so close to me he might as well have been my twin brother. Had I known, I probably wouldn't have changed a thing. I miss life before, yes, but what I really loved about that life was Kuma, not the forest life I lived. I asked Alfred to write my story from his perspective. I wanted to see it through his eyes. God bless him, he wanted to tell me in person. That sounds just like him. He loves to talk. But I asked him to write it because the written word lasts longer than that spoken. I take his stories with me wherever I go and read them when I get bored. I can't thank him enough for writing them. With that said, and with his (and Arthur's) permission, I have decided to share our stories with the world._

_ -Matthew Williams_

_1 July_

_I decided to take the boys into the forest today. I brought Katyusha as an extra chaperone because I knew Alfred would get in trouble. …He still managed to wander off. But I'm glad he did, for once. He did something productive today. Or rather, he found something today. It was incredible! Alfred found a young boy, 9 years old, long, blonde hair, violet-blue eyes. What was most astounding, however, was that the boy was with a bear! A polar bear, no less! The bear seems to be his companion. He doesn't speak English, and Katyusha figured he doesn't speak Russian or Ukrainian. I'll call in a few friends tomorrow and see if we can't find a language he does speak. The only thing he says is "Kumajiro", and I think that's what he named his bear. I tried to take him in, but he didn't want to be separated from the bear. In the end, I left him alone. I think I'll come back with a wildlife expert and try again tomorrow. A boy his age shouldn't be out here alone. Though, I imagine he may have been here for a while. He wasn't dressed, and if he doesn't speak any language…but I can't imagine how he would have ended up here. I hated leaving him in the forest again, but I didn't dare try to take on the bear. It was a bear, for goodness' sake! Alfred seemed to take to him. By the time I found him, he had already made friends with the mysterious bear-boy. According to Alfred, though, the bear wasn't present at the time he found the boy. I'm not sure I believe him, but I have no way of knowing at this time. Of course, Alfred asked me if he could stay in the forest for the night. I swear, that boy will be the death of me._

_ -A.K._

Mattie asked me to write his story through my eyes, so I guess I'll do it. I'd do anything for him, when it comes down to it. We're practically brothers, after all. I'll start before I met him, though, since he wants to know what life was like before he "turned it upside down", as Arthur put it.

Before Mattie, the orphanage was just that, an orphanage. For boys. It was run by Arthur and sometimes Francis showed up and helped. Arthur didn't like Francis, though, so he didn't show up very often. I'm not quite sure what, exactly, Francis had to do with the orphanage besides torturing Arthur, but apparently they had some sort of past partnership or something. Arthur's really good at dodging the topic whenever it comes up. I think Mattie asked Francis once, but I never heard Francis' answer.

Anyway, I'm getting off topic. Katyusha and Natalia were two sisters from somewhere close to Russia. I'm not sure exactly where, but they both speak Russian and Ukrainian. They worked at the orphanage as caretakers of the boys. I remember Arthur saying he liked having them around because he felt children should have a 'woman's influence' in their lives.

I was, to say the least, the troublemaker. Arthur took me in off the streets when I was six, so I had only been living with him for three years when I met Mattie. I still hadn't quite grasped the whole idea of a 'home life', which was probably why I never got adopted and why Mattie and I got along so well. Arthur never managed to take the jungle out of either of us. Well, in my case, the city, and in Mattie's case, the forest. Or the bear.

Ten years ago, I didn't know that a boy named Matthew Williams existed, let alone that I would one day be his best friend, brother, whatever you want to call it. I called him John Doe for a while, there, too. I was nine years old when I met him. Arthur had taken us out to the park at the edge of the forest. I loved it there. It was easy to just run off and hide from Arthur. I was a little worried when he brought Katyusha, but as it turns out, she's easy to get away from, too. It took no time at all for me to sneak away into the forest.

I wandered around, looking for the tall climbing tree I had found the last time I had been there. Before I knew it, I had wandered further than I had before. But that was hardly nerve wracking for me. I liked adventure, so I just kept going. Finally, I ran into a boy. He was naked, and had long blonde hair and blue eyes. This happened ten years ago, so I can't quite remember the details, but I remember I said something along the lines of, "hey, dude. What happened to your clothes?"

The boy cocked his head at me. Again, the details get fuzzy in there, but I vividly remember getting knocked over by a bear. I was terrified for the first time in a long time. After living on the streets at such a young age, not much scares me anymore. I was on my back, staring up at the polar bear, afraid for my life, but the boy suddenly jumped in front of me and held out his arms.

"Kuma!" he called. The bear seemed to calm down. It approached the boy and gently patted him. The boy hugged the bear, running his fingers through the thick, white fur.

Apparently, that had been some sort of initiation, because then, the bear walked over to me and sniffed at me before giving what I can only call a shrug and walking away into the trees. The boy glanced at me, then turned to follow the bear. After a few steps, he stopped and looked at me again. Somehow, I understood that he wanted me to follow. He led me through the forest and to a little hole in the roots of a large tree. The bear ducked into the hole and the boy followed, so I did the same. The hole opened into a little burrow that just barely fit the three of us in it. I had to crawl to fit in it. I have no idea how the bear fit.

The bear was lying down on one side and easily took up half the burrow itself. The boy crawled to the far end of the burrow and scooped up some berries from a big pile. He returned to me and sat down in front of me. I did the same and he put the berries between us. He looked at me and cocked his head, then back down at the berries. He ate some, then looked at me and pushed them over closer to me with a gentle hum.

I blinked, then reached out and took some berries, popping them into my mouth. They were assorted berries. I don't remember exactly what kinds there were, but they were very sweet and the tastes blended well. I smiled at the taste and the boy smiled back, apparently pleased that I liked it. We ate berries for a few more minutes, then the bear suddenly let out a low rumble and lifted its head, its ears perking up.

The boy glanced over and hummed again in a way that sounded like a question.

The bear let out another low rumble and the boy cocked his head as if listening. Then I heard it.

Off in the distance, I could hear Arthur's voice calling my name.

"Oh, shoot!" I exclaimed, drawing the attention of both the boy and the bear. I crawled to the entrance of the burrow and scrambled out. I was in big trouble now. I had been gone for longer than I'd meant.

"Alfred!" Arthur's voice called again, closer this time.

"Over here!" I called in the direction his voice had come from. A moment later, I heard his steps in the brush and he appeared from around a tree.

"Oh, Alfred!" he exclaimed, rushing toward me. He looked me over, checking for injury, talking all the while, "where have you been? Do you have any idea how worried I was? Have you been eating something? Nothing poisonous, I hope?"

"I was eating berries with my friend," I answered.

"What friend?" Arthur asked, "Alfred, I swear, if you ruined your appetite, I'll-" He stopped. His eyes focused on something behind me. I glanced over my shoulder to see the boy peeking out of his little burrow. Arthur slowly walked over to him. He ducked down slightly lower. Arthur softly began speaking to him, "it's alright. I won't hurt you. What are you doing out here? Where are your parents?"

Slowly, the boy stepped out of the hole, but continued backing away from Arthur.

"Where are your clothes?" Arthur asked, "how long have you been out here? Your parents must be worried sick."

The boy backed himself against a tree and waited, watching Arthur get closer.

Arthur knelt down in front of him and held out a hand, "do you want me to help you get home?"

"K-Kumajiro," the boy said softly.

"What was that?" Arthur asked.

"Kumajiro!" the boy exclaimed loudly.

I glanced over at the hole and, sure enough, the bear came out. It looked around for a minute, then its eyes settled on Arthur, who hadn't noticed, and it growled. And then Arthur noticed. He immediately turned and his eyes widened.

"What the- Alfred! Get back!" Arthur commanded. He slowly began to stand and move around the bear. He glanced back at the boy for a moment, and opened his mouth to say something, but the boy was gone.

I'm not sure where the boy went, but I heard him yell, "Kumajiro!" from a ways away. The bear growled at Arthur once more, then ran off into the trees.

Arthur stood in shocked silence for a moment more, then grabbed my hand and headed back the direction he had come, "let's go, Alfred."

Surprisingly enough, I didn't get scolded that day for wandering off. I did, however, get scolded the day after. I read Arthur's journal entry (which I'm not supposed to do) about this day, though, and he said that I apparently wanted to spend the night in the forest, but I have no memory of that.

I guess that's the first day I met Mattie. I'm not sure why he wanted me to write this, especially considering my account isn't the most reliable because I was so young when a lot of it happened, but I'll do my best anyway. I remember that first day fairly vividly, at least, compared to many of my first memories involving Mattie. A lot of them are pretty vague, but that day is stuck in my memory forever.

**Hello!**

**So, um…this is a thing. I'm not quite sure where this idea came from, but I think it had something to do with watching **_**Brave**_**for the first time last night.**

**I don't have much to say about this other than it will be updated completely randomly; like, whenever I feel like it. It will be written mostly in Alfred's POV, but most if not all of the chapters will have Arthur's journal entry in it and a few will have a note from Matthew, too. This doesn't really have an actual storyline to it. It's mostly going to be about Alfred and Matthew growing up. It's also not really a comedy, though there will be funny parts. It's just, sort of, I don't know. A family story, maybe? Also, I'm not writing this with any particular pairings in mind, so you can read into it as much as you want, but you don't have to. **

**I think that's about it. I hope you enjoyed this! Sorry it's so short, but I'll very likely be uploading one if not two more chapters today alone. The rest won't come as quickly, but it'll happen. :)**

_**~Maya**_


	2. Chapter 2

_2 July_

_I brought Francis to the forest today and left the boys with Natalia and Katyusha. Well, most of them. Alfred managed to slip into the backseat of the car without my noticing, so he tagged along. I can't say I'm surprised, but I am annoyed. I figured after I scolded him this morning for disappearing yesterday (I remembered when I woke up that I didn't do that when we got back yesterday) I'd get an hour or so free of his shenanigans. But, of course, this is Alfred we're talking about._

_I managed to find the boy and his 'Kumajiro' (that's what I'll call the bear since I'm fairly certain that's the boy's name for it). Oddly enough, the boy responded quite well to Francis (I wouldn't let Alfred get close), but he doesn't speak French. He took food from us and gobbled it down. He even gave some to his bear, which sat quietly like a pet once our little John Doe (to use the American term) decided we meant no harm._

_We managed to get the boy to feel comfortable with us and I feel at least a little comfortable with the bear. As far as I can tell, as long as John Doe isn't angry with us, the bear won't be either. Francis and I called the boy John Doe as a means of referring to him, and I think we confused Alfred, who has been calling him John since. If this boy is indeed homeless, as I suspect he is, I want to bring him to the orphanage. I'm just not quite sure how to get him away from the bear. Francis wants to come back tomorrow with those friends of his to see if the boy speaks Spanish or German. At this point, I doubt he speaks anything, but I'll go back tomorrow with them anyway. And I'll chain Alfred to a chair to keep him from coming if I must._

_I suppose, if the boy absolutely will not leave the bear, it can come. Out building is, technically, outside the city border and it isn't technically a pet, either. The property is big enough and close enough to the forest that I think it could live comfortably without interfering in our lives. Now I just need to figure out how to communicate that to a boy that doesn't speak any human language._

_ -A.K._

_3 July_

_John Doe doesn't speak Spanish or German, as I suspected. Gilbert really took to him, but I shooed him and Antonio away before they really got a chance to know him better. I tried to shoo Francis away, too, but I think John Doe takes to him too much. He seems to like Francis better…_

_Anyway, I ended up being shooed away by Francis! I'm not entirely sure what happened, but Francis emerged from the forest with the boy in tow! I suppose I'll have to think of a name for him now. I always liked Matthew… I think I'll talk with Francis, Katyusha and Natalia and see what they think. …And knowing Alfred, I'll get his opinion, too, but it's likely to be something that isn't even a real name._

_ -A.K._

_4 July_

_Oddly enough, this arrangement is working. I expected that it wouldn't (mostly because that git Francis came up with it), but Matthew seems quite happy here as long as he gets to see Kumajiro every day. He spends almost every waking moment with either Kumajiro or Alfred. I think, just by observing, that he was never entirely dependent on Kumajiro. He seems to see it almost as his mother. _

_Oh, yes, we decided to name him Matthew. Matthew Williams. Why Williams? I'm not sure. It just seems to fit. I'm calling him Canadian since I found him over the border, but I can't be positive. I haven't decided if I'm going to run DNA tests on him to try and find out if he has parents or not. I think I will eventually, but I'll wait until he starts getting used to his new life._

_Alfred likes the name Matthew. He thinks it's the perfect name. Well, he thinks 'Mattie' is the perfect name. He always was fond of nicknames. He calls Katyusha 'Kat' and Natalia 'Nat'. He has, in the past, called me both 'Artie' and 'Iggy', though I'm not sure where he came up with the second one. I managed to finally convince him to call me by my name, but I suppose it doesn't matter if he wants to give Matthew a nickname. Matthew can decide for himself if he likes it or not, once he understands that it's his name, of course._

_Anyway, I'll start teaching Matthew English soon. Francis desperately wants him to learn French, too, but I think we just need a way to communicate with him before we can worry about which languages he should speak. Luckily, for once, Francis seems to agree with me._

_Today was Alfred's birthday, too. At least, today is the third anniversary of the day I found him, so it's the day we've celebrated as his birthday since he doesn't know when it is. He turned nine today, technically, according to our little system. As always, we had a party and Matthew seemed to be thrilled with it. He stayed with Alfred and kept to the sidelines to watch, mostly, but his eyes were dancing the entire time._

_ -A.K._

I'd just like to mention real quick that most of Arthur's journal entries are way longer than what I'm including in the story. And, I got permission for Arthur to use them. But I'm only using the parts that directly involve Mattie and me and Kuma because those are the only interesting parts. And they're the only parts that I got permission to use.

Anyway, I don't really remember when Mattie started living at the orphanage. That's one of those fuzzy parts of my memory. I just remember meeting him one day, then in my next memory, he's already there. I guess reading Arthur's journal was pretty cool, because I have no memory of any of that.

So, yeah, Mattie was living with us!

I remember Arthur kept speaking really slowly to him and would point things out and say their names. At the time, I didn't understand why. Now that I'm older, I know it's because he didn't speak English. Or any other language. I remember he would get this confused look on his face whenever Arthur was talking to him and he always looked over at me, as if asking me for an explanation. I don't know why, but I never really had trouble understanding what he wanted and what he meant to say. Maybe it was because we were both kids, or maybe it was because I didn't need to use English words to communicate with him the way Arthur did. Come to think of it, he and I have never needed words to communicate. Ever since the berries, we've been able to just…know what the other wants. I'm fairly certain Arthur didn't realize that. If he had, he probably would've used me to try and communicate. But I don't think we communicated in any way that would have been beneficial to him learning what Arthur wanted to teach him.

I'm probably not making any sense. Let me start over. When I first met Mattie and he gave me the berries, I knew he wanted me to eat them with him. And when we were living together, before he learned to speak, we could communicate our needs and wants. I knew when he was hungry, when he was thirsty, when he had to use the bathroom, etc. But at the same time, we never really spoke. It's not like we had our own language. I couldn't explain the rules of a game to him, I couldn't tell him why we ate at noon rather than whenever we wanted. I just couldn't.

I eavesdropped on a conversation Arthur had with Kat and Nat once. He said that he thought Mattie was mute because he wasn't even trying to repeat anything that Arthur said. I remember thinking that was odd because Mattie made lots of noises. When he was with Kuma, they would make nice little growly noises at each other. I think it was their way of saying 'I love you'.

Mattie always followed me everywhere I went and copied everything I did. That's how I taught him so much more than Arthur. That's how he learned to use indoor plumbing (and when it was appropriate to do so. Children have no shame. I'll let you try and figure that one out) and how to put on clothes. During the conversation I eavesdropped on, Nat said that she was worried that Mattie was too old to be copying; that it was a trait you found in toddlers, not nine year old boys. What's really funny is that a few years later, Arthur approached me and told me she had said that to him and he thought it was ironic because Mattie wouldn't have learned as much as quickly if he hadn't copied me.

Arthur said that Mattie had an 'interesting learning style'. He said Mattie preferred to learn all he could about something before trying it, rather than just jumping right in like I would do. I tended to (and still tend to) lunge into things without thinking about them, but Mattie would watch and figure out how it works, then try it when no one was around, then surprise everyone when he could suddenly do it. Again, now that I'm older, I understand it's partially due to an introvert-extrovert thing (Mattie's and introvert; I'm an extrovert) and partially just because that's who Mattie is. Arthur thought it was clever, but that it would keep him from building confidence. I still think he was wrong about that.

I remember my ninth birthday being the first I ever celebrated with Matthew as a part of my life. It's a fuzzy memory, but I remember him staying right with me the entire time. I think he was excited, having never seen anything like it before in his life. Anyway, that's about all I know about it, since I don't really remember much else.

**So…this is kinda a boring chapter. Sorry about that :/ I just wanted to get the basics of how Matthew changed life right from the get-go. The next chapter will start to have more specific stories of things that happened.**

**I'll give you a hint: poptarts.**

**Also, if there's anything in particular (like poptarts) that you would like to see in this story, leave me a review or a PM and let me know. I'll try to work it in!**

**And one more thing: these stories are going to be more-or-less in chronological order, but I can't guarantee that they'll be exactly chronological. So, yeah. Pay attention to the date in Arthur's journal because that'll be the date when it happened. I know it doesn't have a year, but it'll be pretty obvious when a year's gone by, I promise.**

_**~Maya**_


	3. Chapter 3

_Now that I have the words to express myself, I don't really know how thoughts and ideas occurred to me without them. I experienced emotion, and saw images, but I didn't use words to think things through. I remember the first time a word stuck. The first time something made sense. It was like Helen Keller and W-A-T-E-R. Only, I suppose I had it easier. I could hear and see. I knew from the beginning that Arthur was trying to communicate with me. I think he made me out to be less intelligent than I was. At least, at first he did. That didn't last long. Once I learned a word, just like everything else, I would hide away and practice on my own time, or with Kuma. I would practice saying it and listen to it on my tongue until I was positive I had it right. I understood that there was meaning behind everything Arthur said to me; it was just a matter of figuring out that meaning, of putting the puzzle pieces together. It was fun, in a way. _

_The first word I ever learned the meaning behind was poptart. Oh, the irony!_

_-Matthew Williams_

_7 July_

_I took Matthew to the doctor today. He's perfectly healthy, though a little underweight. The doctor scared poor Matthew, though. I felt horrible for him, but all I could do was just hold his hand and reassure him. I considered bringing Francis, as he seems to be very good at calming Matthew down, but he was busy. When we got home, Matthew ran straight to Kumajiro. Alfred followed after him and I didn't see any of them for a couple hours. On the bright side, Matthew can now open and close a car door from both sides and strap on his own seatbelt._

_I think I'm starting to get used to having a bear around, as odd as that sounds. The boys seem to think it's an adventure and they're not afraid of it. And I'm hardly worried that they'll hurt it. It can definitely take care of itself in a fight against seven boys all under 13 years old._

_In other news, Alfred stole food again today. That's hardly abnormal, and I scolded him for it. But today, it wasn't for himself. He stole some poptarts to give to Matthew. He told me he wanted Matthew to try them because he never had. Needless to say, Matthew loved them. I've learned that when he's asking for food, he stands in the kitchen or taps his lips with his fingers. And when he's really hungry, he makes noise and even drags me or Alfred there. I'm trying to teach him to say 'hungry' so he won't have to disturb me to tell me he wants food. Anyway, he's learned where the poptarts are kept and I'm fairly certain that when he stands in that corner of the kitchen, it means he wants one, just like when he stands by the fridge, it means he wants a drink. Come to think of it, the poptart incident reminds me of when Alfred first introduced him to juice. But juice won't spoil their appetites as long as they don't drink too much of it._

_Luckily, it seems he's realised that we work according to a loose kind of schedule. We eat at specific hours and go to bed a specific times. I think he knows that, because he doesn't steal food on his own. Alfred does, and Matthew will eat it if Alfred gives it to him, but he himself doesn't actually take food. He simply tells me when he's hungry._

_ -A.K._

Of _course_ Mattie had never been to a doctor before and of _course_ he'd never had poptarts before and of _course_ he'd never etc. He'd been living in a forest. So, little nine-year-old me decided it was entirely my duty to introduce him to the things he'd missed out on for the past nine years of his life.

So, I stole some poptarts. I knew I'd get in trouble and I knew Arthur would scold me for it, but I had decided that I didn't care. I wanted Mattie to have poptarts and I wanted him to have them as soon as possible because he never had. Besides, I thought it would help him get over the trauma of the doctor's appointment.

I remember the movie _Mission Impossible_ had played on TV the night before, and the general consensus of all the boys had been to watch it, so I was naturally pretending to be in that movie as I climbed onto the counter, opened the box, and took a package out of it. I returned to Mattie and gave him one. I kept the other for myself. I wouldn't have gotten in trouble if we hadn't been so noisy and eaten them so slowly. We should have gone outside and given some to Kuma (because only a nine-year-old would feed poptarts to a bear) and Arthur probably never would have known, but we didn't do that and Arthur walked in on us with poptarts in our hands and mouths. And I got scolded.

For a long time after Mattie started living with us, he didn't get scolded for anything. Granted, pretty much everything he ever got in trouble for was originally my fault, but he never got scolded. I never really got jealous of him for it. I was used to it. I was the troublemaker of the orphanage. I got scolded a lot.

I think Arthur saw Mattie as unintelligent or weak for a while. I think he was afraid of scaring him if he scolded him, whereas he knew for a fact I could take it. But once Mattie started actually learning stuff, he scolded him, too. It helped him learn new words sometimes (no, not those kinds of words. Arthur almost never got _that_ mad. And certainly never at Mattie) and it definitely helped him learn what he could and couldn't do. He may not have understood what he was being scolded for or what Arthur was saying, but he eventually learned that when you do X, Y happens, Y being a scolding. He put two and two together and learned that scolding is bad and to avoid it, one must not do X. It's the way everyone learns, from young children to dogs. Mattie learned it much more quickly than a child or a dog, though. But he was also much smarter than a child or a dog. And, though he was wild on the inside, like me, he was well-mannered at the right times, a skill I still haven't quite mastered.

I'm not sure exactly when, but a couple days or so after Mattie arrived, Arthur took him to the doctor to make sure he was healthy and not going to die on us after only having him for a couple days. He did the same for me when he took me in. I don't know what that doctor did to him, but it terrified poor Mattie. Most likely, the doctor did nothing. But, like I said, Mattie had never seen a doctor before. He didn't even know they existed before that day. Of course the doctor terrified him. Doctors have freaky instruments and do weird things to you. Even if you've done it before, it can be unnerving. I'm pretty sure that by now he's gotten over his fear of doctors, but as soon as Mattie learned the word 'doctor', he would run and hide every time he heard it for years.

Going to the doctor was the first time Mattie had ridden in a car. His eyes were shining when he first got in and Arthur put his seat belt on. He was completely fascinated and intrigued with the large machine. I didn't think the doctor would scare him so much, otherwise I would have crept into the backseat and gone with them.

I felt so bad for him when he got back.

I have to admit, I was impressed that Mattie learned how to take off a seatbelt and open a car door on his own after just one car ride. As soon as the car stopped when they got back, Mattie dashed out without waiting for Arthur to unstrap him and open the door, which is how I knew he figured it out himself (though he may not have had his seatbelt on for the entire ride back). He ran off into the forest, calling for Kuma in a frightened voice. I quickly ran after.

When I finally found him, Mattie was pressed against Kuma, sobbing harshly. Somehow, I knew the best thing I could do for him was just be there and be silent, like Kuma was doing. So, I walked up to him, sat on the ground, leaned against Kuma, and just waited. He eventually calmed down and looked up at me. I'm not sure when he realized I was there, but he wasn't surprised to see me. He turned and sat down, leaning against Kuma like I was.

I'm surprised Arthur didn't worry about us because we fell asleep. I guess he figured Mattie would be fine with a bear on his side. We slept for a couple hours, I think, then I think Kuma got bored or something, because he shifted and we both fell over. We laughed about it, and Kuma seemed amused, too, which is odd because he's a bear, but whatever.

The doctor's appointment was another reason why I wanted to give Mattie a poptart. I thought it would make him feel better. It definitely did. Like a lollipop after the dentist or something. I mean, it doesn't make sense that a dentist would ever give you a lollipop (come to think of it, I'm not sure that I've ever actually received a lollipop from a dentist…) but it makes you feel better about yourself anyway.

It took a couple days, I think, but everyone started getting used to Kuma. I know Arthur felt really nervous around him at first, but he started seeing him almost like a dog. And it's not like Kuma hung around or anything. Mattie wasn't codependent in any way on Kuma. They were more like partners. Mattie didn't want to be separated from Kuma, for sure, but he was fine with spending most days without him.

But Mattie didn't like sleeping alone. He always wanted to sleep with Kuma. To remedy this, I slept with him sometimes, and other times I helped him sneak out so he could go find Kuma and sleep with him. I don't think Arthur ever found out, so I guess this is my confession (sorry, Arthur). We got caught by Kat once, but she let us go. I think she thought I was taking him to the bathroom or something. I'm not sure, but she seemed pretty out of it. We had probably woken her up.

I slept with Kuma a couple times, too. I know why Mattie liked sleeping with him. He was warm and soft and after a couple minutes of getting comfortable, you wouldn't even need a blanket.

Kuma never really hung around for very long and he never came indoors or anything. He didn't like to. He always stayed outside and he almost never even came onto the property. He just stayed out in the forest unless Mattie called him. After a while, he responded to my call, too, but I never really needed to call him for anything.

Come to think of it, though, we never had another raccoon in the garage since Mattie started living with us…

Before Mattie came, we got raccoons in our trash and our garage all the time. I think Kuma kept them away while he was living in the forest just outside out property.

**I don't really have anything to say about this chapter.**

…**which is the reason why it hasn't been uploaded until now even though it's been finished for about a week…oops…sorry**

**Oh, I guess I do need to mention one thing, though. This story itself might end up being quite long, but the chapters are probably all going to end up being pretty short. Sorry about that, it's just the nature this story has taken on and there's nothing I can do about it. (No, seriously. Ask any writer and they'll tell you that sometimes, it just isn't possible to control a story.)**

**Anyway, chapter 4 should be up soon. It's started, but I kinda got lazy and haven't finished it yet.**

**Also, I wanted to upload this because I'm going to camp tomorrow for a week and I don't know how long it's gonna be before I get a chance to write again.**

…**for not having anything to say about this chapter, this A/N is actually quite long.**

**Whatevs. **

**Anywho, until next time!**

_**~Maya**_


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